‘Russia can prevent military operation against Iran’

Russia should do its best to prevent a military operation in Iran, believes head of the Russian parliamentary Committee for International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev.

­“A military operation against Iran could have grave consequences,” he told journalists on Thursday. “And Russia should make every effort to control emotions, bring negotiations back into the field of political and expert discussion, and not allow any such action against Iran”.

He stressed that he sees this as Russia’s responsibility, and that Moscow has all the means to tackle this task. The politician also said that he is “surprised” by the fact that in its latest report, the IAEA does not cite any new evidence that Tehran has been “developing nuclear weapons”.

On Tuesday, the nuclear watchdog released a report in which it accused Iran of conducting activities related to developing nuclear weapons before 2003. The authors of the document presume these activities “may still be ongoing”.

Kosachev believes the report is inconsistent.

“What is even more surprising,” he adds, “is that the document deals with the situation before 2003, while accusation are being brought against modern Iran and today’s leadership.”

So for now, it is best not to jump to conclusions before there is an expert opinion on the IAEA report, the official is convinced.

“It is premature to say that Iran is violating its non-proliferation obligations and, consequently, deserves economic sanctions or a military operation based on this report only,” Konstantin Kosachev stressed.

Over the recent weeks the US, France and Israel have stated that force can be used against Iran, and that it is time to do so. On November 6, Israeli president Shimon Peres said that an attack on Tehran is becoming “more and more likely”.

In the opinion of Konstantin Kosachev, this military rhetoric makes the talks on Iran’s nuclear program useless, as settlement of the problem is only possible “through political dialogue”.